This invention pertains to floor boxes which house power and communication wires for termination and, more particularly, to a cover assembly having a smaller cord door that can be re-positioned as needed.
It is well-known to run electrical wires and telecommunications wires underneath the surface of a floor. These cables and electrical systems may be placed under the floor surface so as to be more efficient in supplying power and data/telecommunication signals in commercial buildings. The electrical cables or wires beneath the floor may be accessed through a hole in the surface of the floor. In order to provide convenient access to the wires or cables as well as the termination devices which terminate the wires, a floor box is typically placed in the hole through the floor.
Floor boxes are typically made of metallic material so that they are resistant to the outside elements, such as moisture, and are also strong enough to maintain the structural integrity of the floor. The cover used on these floor boxes oftentimes varies depending on the type of flooring to be employed, i.e. wood, tile, exposed concrete, and the like. Such covers oftentimes incorporate a smaller cord door that is used after the building is completed in order to allow wires to extend from the floor box through the cord door and to the device being powered or communicated with.
However, during construction, the exact placement of such devices is not known. Thus, it is common to find the cord door in an inconvenient/improper orientation following the installation process. Also, once the building is completed, it is quite common for the building layout to change over time and thus these powered or communicated devices will be moved to yet another location. Thus, the cover on these floor boxes will need to be adjusted once again to take into account the new location of these devices. Further, it is common for the building layout to require a new or different type of cover to be employed, such as one requiring connection to a flexible conduit. Hence the floor box and/or its cover may need to be altered accordingly.
In the past, when such a situation was encountered, it became necessary for the entire cover of the embedded floor box to be separated from the box. The cover would then be rotated (if possible) so as to properly position the smaller cord door to open in the desired direction. This required the removal of the flooring material surrounding the floor box (and oftentimes beyond) so that the fasteners securing the cover to the box could be accessed. In some cases, concrete had to be removed if the pour extended over these fasteners. Also, removal and replacement of this flooring material is costly and hence, in many situations, the cost and effort of re-positioning the cover was not deemed worth the effort.
Also, even if worth the effort of re-positioning the cover, some boxes may not permit this because the cover may only be secured to the box in one orientation. Alternatively, the box may not be square and hence the cover may only be able to be rotated 180 degrees and not 90 degrees which may be the desired cord door opening direction. Furthermore, even if the box is of some other shape that can accommodate a rotatable cover, the fastener locations may not be in alignment so that even if the box can accommodate a re-positioned cover, the fasteners cannot.
Regardless of the need required of the floor box and its cover, the design must also be adequate enough to support the weight and loading that a typical floor box is subject to and the floor box assembly must still comply with all local and national codes and or specifications pertaining to floor boxes.
It is thus an object of this invention to provide a floor box cover that incorporates a smaller cord door therein. Another object of this invention is to provide a floor box that complies with all local and national codes and specifications. A further object of this invention is to provide a floor box with a cord door such that the cord door can be adjusted so as to open in the desired direction without having to re-position or re-orient the entire cover. Still another object of this invention is to provide a cord door that can be removed and re-positioned as needed and further that can be replaced with another different cover plate if the need to do so arises. These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become evident upon further review.